Roughly 17 hours

I slept a lot today. Didn't do any riding...oops should have as I already had 7.5 hours at least for the weekend from Friday and Saturday's ride.

My first time out at the Doc Ride on Saturday's went quite well. I ran into my teammate Rita, cat 3, in Wales and we met Jimmy Winters there as well. Together we warmed up and headed to the Doc ride. It was just great, I had 7 teammates there all told. Oh and by Doc Ride, I really mean "group race." Teammates: Johnny, Rick, Barry, Russ, Mark, Jeff, Rita, and Jimmy. As it turned out we did a lot of the pace making at the front too haha. Peloton was pretty sluggish off the bat but I nailed the 2nd intermediate sprint and almost nailed the third one but my lead-out train came up short (wasn't really comprised of teammates, oh well). The 2nd sprint was really a short break up a short power climb led by Johnny and then the Doc and myself. I just pedaled past Johnny and grinned. He said if anyone beat him up to the stop-ahead sign it'd better be me.

one of the guys I ride with is Bill Ochowicz, his brother founded the 7-eleven team here in WI and I'm pretty sure is heavily involved in the Phonak team (eesh) He's quite fast and every ride thus far has beaten me in the final sprint into dousman. It's a great finishing straight, a few rollers through forest a right then a downhill to a left and then flat pine-lined for 3/8 of a mile into the 25mph reduced speed ahead sign. That's the finish. I've jokingly told him that beating him in the sprint would top all of my superweek accomplishments and I finally did. about 2k from the finish I was sitting about 8 wheel two back from Bill. John Van Susteren was going to give me a leadout so he was farther up but an Endeavor guy whose name escapes me was sitting on Bill's wheel and would not give it up. It was frustrating to say the least especially when we rounded the final bend. I was about 8th still and the horses at the front had pulled off to stay out of the sprint. Johnny was bringing it up to mach and it was 1 guy and then Bill in 3rd wheel. the Endeavor guy SAT UP and I was flabbergasted. Yes I know this is a group ride, but seriously... none the less I got around and bridged up just as John was pulling off. I nipped by the stranger and got bill by a length by the sign. And that was that...

I was only joking when I was telling Finn maybe I'll be 2 by the end of summer, but I'm starting to think about it. WIth one top ten and two wins I've got 14 points of 25 for my upgrade. All I need really is more experience. It's something to shoot for. That or if the Tour of 10,000 Lakes is back on, perhaps I'll bag it until then and cat up afterwards. It is certainly a lot to think about.

And I want to go pro, seriously, hopefully by my junior year at Olaf.

That and I'm considering doing my first mountain bike race after the state crit, one of the WORS races, haha I just have to find a bike.

Cheers

Morning

Off to the Doc ride shortly, my body has the usual 5 hour tightness but hopefully I've got some snap so I can continue to work on my sprint.

then I have to clean my car

Catch-Up

All right all right this has been put off long enough. Over the next few days I'll be updating my blog with tales of superweek and getting some pretty darn sweet pics up (hopefully, there's an awesome sprint sequence). Where to start?


Today: ended up getting in 5 hours of riding today, the first time that's happened in well over 3 weeks. this week was supposed to be a recovery week from superweek, but it rained 3.5 inches in 1 hour last night so I didn't ride then or tuesday just because I didnt have the itch. so, 2 days of easy riding, 2 days off + working full time. It took a good 2.75 hours initially to get the gunk out of my legs from Superweek. at about 5 I rolled into the Cyclesmith Bike Shop for some tubes and Colin the manager said I should stick around because the Jrs he coaches were shoving off at 6. I got it 40 minutes of recovery and was off again for another 2 hours. Now, I'm cooked. Oh and I was riding in a TT set up.


the uh state TT was supposed to be this weekend but it was canceled due to the hazards of the out and back TT loop in New Glarus, WI. I am still riding the Madone 5.2SL from Milltown Cycles of Faribault, with a mavic cosmic carbone Sl in the rear (long story, but it just might have a happy ending) but I've got a set of Profile T2+ aerobars, a worth-while investment and the "S" bend is fantastic/looks nice. Also if you are ever in a pinch and need something from Europe that you can't get for your bike through your shop, check out www.totalcycling.com I ordered the Bell Meteor II TT lid on tuesday and it came today, fast. So is the helmet...

Sean says the TT is boring, I don't know, it's like an extended hammerfest/sprint. I think I am going to like it quite a bit.

Here are the short stats on Superweek, race reports coming soon:

Wins: 7 (5 cat 4's, 2 cat 3's)
Winner of the 4/5 omnium (which means I'll be getting a Waterford steel frame to build up with Force and Deda parts)

and I had to fill out a w-9 form because I won enough money that they will tax by p-b-a. shoot.

It's off to my first Drop the Doc saturday ride tomorrow, starts at 8, i'll get in a warm up from Wales after driving out there. Should be fast, hope the legs are up to it. Oh this is a mini build for my first pro/1/2/3 race in Sherrill, IA It's the Dan Bockstedt Cup and it'll be 80 miles of "hill yes!" terrain. At least that's what the flyer said...

S-S-S-Superweek

Some bulletins:

I have a dog now, a 10-month old black lab named Princess. boo. I refrain from calling her by her name as much as possible. My dad and I have taken to calling her sweetie. She is one.

Check out www.wicycling.org for my race results for the last few weeks. Or Finn's blog for the UWW RR race report...

I figured I had better update or discontinue before I head to bed tonight. I chose the former...

Tonight is the second night of superweek, 2 races down possibly fourteen to go. As Noonan would say, I'm bagging it a bit as a 4, but hey there's a steel gunnar/waterford frame with an alpha Q carbon fork for the omnium winner so... Finn I just might be riding steel by next year, and yeah it'd be painted silver white and blue, mostly just silver. Maybe even throw SRAM's new superb grouppo on it... That's what I'm shooting for anyway that and the cat. 3 state TT and crit. None the less,


Day 1: Menasha, Otto Grunski Classic

the course was a triangle with two hairpins and a gentle bend in the middle. The finishing straight was on the second short leg before the long back stretch, which would become crucial to my race finish. The 4/5 field was pretty small for opening day, only 26 racers. There were a variety of attacks and everyone was too squierrely for anything to stick. Two accidents happened in opposing hairpins, one kid a pretty fast Endeavor jr. named Mitch ended up in the turn 1 barriers and he taco'ed his dad's zipp 404. oops. The second crash happened with about 4 left to go which kind of strung out the peloton. I was sitting about 7th and all of the sudden I was pulling. I pulled the last lap and a half. Sitting third into the final corner before the gentle wide turn I lost my line and went wide which left two guys off the front, 2 more filled the gap and they started to get in and out of their saddles, I got back into 3rd wheel and then poof everyone was gone. I was there pulling in the last 450 meters. We had a tailwind for the finish and that makes the sprint a lot shorter in a way, the finish comes up quicker. At 400 meters I jumped and everyone covered me I looked back twice to see if anyone was coming around but they were just hanging on. My rear wheel left the pavement on a bump around the gentle corner but I kept it down and my cadence up. I ended up sprinting for 400 meters and winning by a clean bike lenght. Brian Hertzberg, 3rd, and Andrew from Endeavor 2nd just rode my wheel but couldnt get by me. This bodes well for my form as Hertzberg and I have duked it out in friendly sprints 3 or 4 times. If I can hold him, I don't think I'll have any problems other than positioning and crashing and we all know those damn cat 5's...

Today: Manitowoc First National Bank Classic

Today's course was a .7 mile rectangle with a healthly tail/cross wind. The finishing straight and turn 1 were in the wind the other two sections were tail. We had 4 lanes to work with so most of the cornering was pedaled through. I did not plan on racing today but decided I would just take it easy (which never happens, again the Noonan easy training ride syndrome). I fake attacked no less than 4 times and worked way harder in the closing laps than I wanted to. Dallas Fowler of Chronometro brokeaway at a little after the halfway point. I must say the peloton is full of lazy lazy bitches. About 8 of us were working the soloist had anywhere between 15 seconds to 1:00 on us. Christ we just couldnt organize and the stronger riders were getting tired. Two guys bridged up at about 12 laps to go, I was sitting right behind them and I let them go. Dumb mistake. When I attacked it was to liven up the bunch and get them to chase. No such luck. Everyone else let them roll off... I couldnt find a rhythm to get off the front and we came within 5 seconds of catching. A guy from VeloTek jumped on 2 laps to go and managed to dangle between the bunch and the break. And again I ended up working 1 and 1/2 laps until some guy tried to jump around me on the tailwind section. I hung on and rested up enough to sprint for 200 meters and take 5th on the day, 1st in the field sprint. Just disgusting and frustrating that we couldn't work together to bring it back. That and as one guy asked me in the race, "how many matches do you have?" It's a good question, I need to keep the accountant happy, not go on so many attacks (Finn).

Tomorrow is Alpine Valley, a lot of the stronger guys were masters age and will not be there tomorrow. Today's winner Dallas is sitting just two points down on me, I sit in first with 36 points. He soloed for at least 15 miles today. Hopefully I can crush him in the short power hills tomorrow.
Tuesday is the 2nd RR at the Proving Grounds. Wednesday is Whitnall Park RR which is more like a circuit. All three are double points so I need to be there. Thursday just might be a rest day...or a hang at the back of the pack and just take whatever points come on the day.

Goddam this omnium series for 16 days is just the best thing ever. Time for a cool bath and 10 hrs of sleep. First an MET2 Shake...